Imagine standing a few feet from live, acoustic instruments and melodious human voices. How does it make you feel?
“At a concert, music is so palpable you can feel it embrace you,” said Bob Breheny, Gilroy resident and concert director for the Celtic Society of Monterey Bay. “All your senses are fully engaged.”
Breheny was discussing the Celtic Society’s upcoming garden concert Sept. 12 at the home of Eileen Cuevas. The concert, which is open to members and non-members, will feature Irish Traditional singer Colleen Raney accompanied by a fiddler and bouzouki player.
Breheny, who has served as concert director for 25 years, developed concert events to attract new members to the Celtic Society. Born in Yonkers, New York, to an Irish father and first generation Irish-American mother, Breheny moved to Gilroy about 35 years ago. He describes himself as “a Gilroy resident doing my bit to make the Garlic capital the Gaelic capital.”
The Celtic Society was founded to encourage all aspects of Celtic culture, but Breheny admits the musical side has taken over.
“The music has rather eclipsed all else, perhaps because so many find it most accessible,” he said.
Noting that concerts are a great medium for the music, Breheny suggests experiencing the music as it was meant to be experienced: live. This is possible at events like home garden concerts hosted by members of the society across the South Valley.
Breheny said the garden concerts have more of an impact because they’re acoustic.
“It’s a real treat hearing the naked human voice and instruments leaving their source and entering your ears direct, sans any detours through wires and amplifiers,” he said, explaining the concerts’ uniqueness.
Over the years, Breheny developed concert events as part of his mission to attract new members to the Celtic Society. This began with house parties featuring local Celtic performers. In the early 1990s, he helped establish Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz, which he calls “that jewel box of a venue” and “the nexus” of Celtic Society concerts.
The society now averages 40 to 50 concerts each year, and local musicians still play at home garden events. Breheny said performers also come to play from all over the world, usually those on U.S. tours from Ireland, Scotland, Britany—the Celtic region of France, Galicia and Asturias—the Celtic climes of Spain, and Cape Breton—the Celtic enclave off Nova Scotia.”
Eileen Cuevas will host the society’s Sept. 12 home garden concert in Gilroy.
“Colleen Raney has been hailed in ‘Irish Music Magazine’ as among the best in her genre,” Cuevas said. “This will be her third visit to Gilroy and my house for a special night of songs and music under the stars.”
Raney also plays the bodhran, which Breheny explained is an Irish goatskin drum. She will be joined by Bob Soper on fiddle and Ryan Davidson on Irish bouzouki.
This will be the sixth time Cuevas has hosted a concert. Since retiring, she has tuned in to her enjoyment of music through participation in the Celtic Society and Porchfest Gilroy. Festivities begin in her backyard with a potluck dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by the two-hour concert at 7:30 p.m.
“There is nothing like live music to set your soul free,” Cuervas said. “It is great to be up close to the musicians and to converse with them in a small venue.”
Breheny, who Cuervas referred to as the “heart and soul of the Celtic Society of Monterey Bay,” said fans of bluegrass and country music will recognize Celtic music as an ancestor of those genres.
“Music being a living thing, the music evolved in this country to bluegrass and country, as opposed to say Cape Breton, where the small island community preserved in a pristine form the Scots music of their forebearers from over two centuries ago,” he explained
Anyone can become a member of the Celtic Society or attend a concert. Membership fees go toward concert arrangements. The regular concert donation is $15 per attendee with proceeds benefiting the performers. Breheny said performers generally welcome requests from the audience.
For information or to make reservations for the Sept. 12 concert, contact Cuevas at (408) 847-4746 or
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. Information about membership, events and the Celtic Society’s history is available at celticsociety.org.
